Doc Rivers honors former coach Rick Majerus

Sunday

Dec 9, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Yesterday was a long, emotional day for Doc Rivers and it had nothing to do with getting over the Celtics’ overtime loss in Philadelphia Friday. Rivers stayed in Philadelphia Friday night after the Celtics lost.

By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Yesterday was a long, emotional day for Doc Rivers and it had nothing to do with getting over the Celtics’ overtime loss in Philadelphia Friday.

Rivers stayed in Philadelphia Friday night after the Celtics lost. Yesterday morning, he flew to Milwaukee to attend the funeral Mass of Rick Majerus at Marquette University, then flew to Boston and arrived at the Garden a couple of hours before the Celtics played the Sixers again.

“It was just a long day, a tough day,” Rivers said. “Now we have a game. That’s how I look at it.”

When Rivers played for Marquette, Majerus was an assistant coach. Majerus is the one who nicknamed Rivers “Doc” after he spotted him wearing a Dr. J Julius Erving T-shirt as a youngster.

Majerus died of heart complications on Dec. 1 at the age of 64. He served as head coach at Utah and St. Louis.

“I’ve been with Rick since fifth grade for the most part,” Rivers said. “So I felt like I had to be there. It was important for me.”

Rivers said he never considered skipping last night’s game.

“If I really want to (tick) Rick off,” Rivers said, “don’t coach the game. I didn’t give that much thought. Life is involved in what we do every day. You deal with life and then you deal with your job. I always try to separate it when you can. Sometimes you can’t.”

Denver coach George Karl and guard Andre Miller also attended the funeral.

So did former NBA coach Del Harris and former NBA player Keith Van Horn. Miller and Van Horn played for Majerus at Utah.

Although Rajon Rondo limped a bit after he slipped on the final shot Friday, Rivers said he was ready to go last night.

Rondo walked in the locker room before the game in flip flops with no tape on either ankle.

Guards Royal Ivey (strained groin) and Nick Young (hyper-extended toe) were out for Philly. Sixers coach Doc Collins said Kwame Brown (stomach virus) was available.

The Celtics sent rookie Kris Joseph back to the Maine Red Claws.

Both teams were tired after playing the night before in Philadelphia, but Collins tried to inspire his players by telling them that Kevin Garnett has played more than 51,000 minutes in his career, Paul Pierce more than 48,000, Jason Terry more than 38,000 and Rajon Rondo about 15,000 (actually he’s played in more than 21,000).

“I’m sure the crowd is going to lift them,” Collins said, “but there’s no reason those guys should be fresher than us, not with the amount of playoff games and the amount of minutes they’ve played in this league.”

Collins said he looked up those stats himself.

“It’s my TV background,” said Collins, who used to be a network television analyst. “It’s what I always did with TV.”

Rivers said while the Celtics have piled up a lot of minutes, they should have learned how to play when fatigued.

“We’re the wiser team,” he said. “If we turn the ball over like we did (Friday), we can’t win the game. I know that.”

Rivers said he wouldn’t limit his the playing time of his players last night because they’ll have three days off before their next game Wednesday at home against Dallas.

Sixers swingman Evan Turner plays his best against the Celtics. Friday, he scored 26 points, including the game-winning basket with three seconds left.

“It seems like every game we play Boston,” Collins said, “he and Garnett get into a couple of rassle ups. I think Kevin, and he’s not going to say it, but I think Kevin has a lot of respect for Evan because I think he admires the way Evan plays because I think he sees that same competitive fire that he has in himself.”